Midori
Suntory’s muskmelon liqueur, launched in New York in 1978 and named for the Japanese word for green. It sweetens and dyes in a single measure, which makes the colour as much a part of the spec as the flavour.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Ripe muskmelon and honeydew, sweet and frank: the colour promises novelty and the flavour delivers melon, no apology.
Storage & Handling
Sealed and upright, out of light: the green fades in sun long before the sugar tires.
Usage
One measure both flavours and colours, so let acid do the balancing and let the green stand as the drink’s signature. The Tokyo Iced Tea is the classic, and it suits anything wanting melon and visibility.
Green, and Named for It
Suntory launched Midori in New York in 1978, and the name says everything: midori is Japanese for green, and green is what the bottle is.
The flavour is muskmelon, the sweet honeydew-and-cantaloupe fruit prized in Japan, carried in a low-strength liqueur built as much for the eye as for the palate. It follows a real fruit rather than a generic green flavouring, which is the thing people assume wrongly.
Shorthand for an Era
It became shorthand for a certain kind of bar. The melon note and neon colour anchor the Tokyo Iced Tea and a run of bright, sweet drinks that trade on spectacle.
It has been reformulated over the years towards a lighter, fruitier pour, and it has stayed unmistakably green throughout. That consistency is the point of the product: the colour is the promise it makes.
Colour and Flavour Together
Spec it as both at once. One measure sweetens and dyes simultaneously, which means the quantity cannot be adjusted for taste without also adjusting how the drink looks.
That is an unusual constraint and it shapes how the liqueur is used. Where a drink needs more melon than green, or more green than sweetness, there is no way to separate the two, so the rest of the build has to absorb the difference.
Balance and Keeping
It is sweet and low in strength, so it should be treated as a flavour-and-colour liqueur rather than as a spirit, with acid doing the balancing work.
Keep it sealed and out of the light. The green fades in sunlight long before the sugar tires, so a bottle left on a bright shelf will still taste correct and no longer look the part, which for this bottle is most of the failure.
It is also low enough in strength that it will not preserve itself indefinitely once opened the way a spirit does. A bottle used twice a year is fine; one that has been open for several is worth tasting before it goes anywhere near a drink.
Top Tips
- Midori means green in Japanese: the name is the colour, and the colour is half the reason to pour it.
- It is sweet and low in strength: treat it as a flavour-and-colour liqueur, not a spirit, and let acid balance its sugar.
- A measure tints and sweetens at once: pour for the melon note and the drink dyes itself green.
Possible Substitutions
- Any melon liqueur: the brand changes, the melon-and-green holds
- Melon syrup plus vodka and a drop of green: the deconstruction, less rounded
Production Method
Suntory’s liqueur of muskmelon: sweetened neutral spirit carrying the melon flavour and the trademark green, first bottled in 1978 and reformulated over the years toward a lighter, fruitier pour. Green throughout, whatever the vintage.
Common Questions
What flavour is Midori?
Muskmelon: ripe, sweet honeydew-and-cantaloupe fruit rather than a generic green flavouring. Suntory built it around the Japanese melon, so the flavour follows the fruit rather than the colour, which is the assumption people usually get wrong.
What does Midori mean?
Green, in Japanese. The name is simply the colour of the bottle. Suntory launched it in New York in 1978 and let the word do double duty as both the name and the description of what you are looking at.
What cocktails use Midori?
The Tokyo Iced Tea is the classic, using it for melon and its signature green at once. Beyond that it carries any drink wanting sweet melon and a colour that reads across a dark room, which is much of why it exists.
Why has my bottle lost its colour?
Sunlight. The green fades on a bright shelf long before the sugar gives way, so a faded bottle still tastes correct and no longer does the job it was bought for. Keep it sealed, upright and out of direct light.
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Guide by Jerry Can Spirits